Orders We Will Not Obey

Oath Keepers is a non-partisan association of currently serving US military, reserves, National Guard, peace officers, fire-fighters, and veterans who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic … and meant it. They won’t “just follow orders.”

Below is their declaration of orders they will NOT obey because they consider them unconstitutional (and thus unlawful) and immoral violations of the natural rights of the people. Such orders would be acts of war against the American people by their own government, and thus acts of treason. "We will not make war against our own people. We will not commit treason. We will defend the Republic."

Declaration of Orders We Will NOT Obey

In Australia

The Australian Constitution does not include a Bill of Rights. Some delegates to the 1898 Constitutional Convention favoured a section similar to the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution, but the majority felt that the traditional rights and freedoms of British subjects were sufficiently guaranteed by the Parliamentary system and independent judiciary which the Constitution would create. As a result, the Australian Constitution has often been criticised for its scant protection of rights and freedoms.

Some express rights were, however, included, such as:

Right to trial by jury – Section 80 creates a right to trial by jury for indictable offences against Commonwealth law. There are serious conceptual limitations to this right however, since the Commonwealth is free to make any offence, no matter how serious the punishment, triable otherwise than on indictment. As Justice Higgins said in R. v. Archdall & Roskruge; Ex parte Carrigan and Brown (1928) 41 CLR 128: "if there be an indictment, there must be a jury, but there is nothing to compel procedure by indictment". In practice, however, no major issue of abuse of this loophole has been raised.

Right to freedom of religion (Section 116).

The Evolution of Revolution

Kelly Bryson, expert on non-violent conflict, describes the evolution of non-violence as a revolutionary force, its success rate and historic examples over the last century.

People Power via Non-Violent Action and Peaceful Civil Disobedience

From Jesus to Gandhi, and Martin Luther King and Chavez to the people of Egypt today, nonviolent action campaigns have been a part of political life for millennia, challenging abuses by authorities, spearheading social reforms, demanding an end to colonial rule, or protesting militarism and discrimination.

Famous nonviolent protest leaders such as India’s Mohandas Gandhi and the United States’ Martin Luther King Jr., were committed to nonviolent action as the most effective means of waging their respective struggles. As Gandhi said "I would die for my cause but never will I kill for it".

In recent decades there has been a major upsurge in organized nonviolent insurrections against autocratic governments, many of which have achieved significant political and social reforms and even toppled repressive regimes from power.

Why Nonviolence Works

Nonviolent action can actually be more powerful than violence. A recent academic study of 323 major insurrections revealed that major nonviolent campaigns were successful 53 percent of the time, whereas primarily violent resistance campaigns were successful only 26 percent of the time.

Armed resistance tends to upset undecided elements of the population, who then seek security in the government and also gives the government easy justification for violent suppression. Conversely, force used against unarmed peaceful protesters engenders greater sympathy and may encourage formerly undecided elements of the community to side with the protesters.

Unarmed movements also increase the likelihood of defections and noncooperation by unmotivated police and military personnel.

Tactics of nonviolent campaigns may include strikes, boycotts, mass demonstrations, the popular contestation of public space, refusal to pay taxes, destruction of symbols of government authority (such as official identification cards), refusal to obey official orders (such as curfew restrictions), and the creation of alternative institutions for political legitimacy and social organization.